The Tragic Tale of "Daga"

Each day, his situation deteriorated further. He transformed into a notorious thief, brazenly robbing people at night and even in broad daylight without concealing his identity.

He was our childhood friend. His mother named him Chinagorom (which means "God defends me"), but he nicknamed himself Daga! From childhood he had always shown signs of leading a career of crime commission and when he finally grew older he went fulltime.

He was cursed everyday by old women he stole stuffs from. He would break into their homes with his gangs, forcefully take things that doesn't belong to him and still leave them a note: "It's me Daga, I'm the one who robbed you"

He has been arrested severally but he only stays a few hours at the police custody and is released. We all thought he worked with the police. Maybe he bribes himself out of there.

He steals about everything he can lay his hands on, including food items. The worse part is that his mom was in support of everything he did. This was the strangest part for me, Why would a mother support a son who is a thief?
People will bring reports of her son to her but she always defended his son.

Venturing out one fateful day, he embarked on a thieving mission, risking his life in the process. The community's enforcers, known for their merciless treatment of thieves, apprehended him. For two agonizing weeks, his fate remained a mystery to us, we all thought he would be dead, but some said if they killed him we would have heard the story. To our astonishment, he resurfaced, undeterred, and resumed his spree of robbery.

I remember one day that he went to steal from our neighbor's son, he successfully took the boy's phone from him, the boy begged for the Sim card. "You can take the phone but please not the Sim all my business contacts are in it". These were the boys words to the thief.
Even after the boy's pleas and explanation, the thief blatantly refused.

The boy told his mother what happened and who stole the phone. The boy's mom told the boy not to worry that she'd get the phone or the Sim card back to him.
Well the boy's mom visited the thief's mom to beg for her son's phone. The thief's mother denied knowing anything about it, and she said that if my son stole your boys phone I'd have known.

There was nothing else the woman could do but she assured the thief's mother that her son will die young from his stealing curse. She even swore that the next stealing operation is what will take her son's life.

We all thought that this was all the normal curses the thief has always received and that nothing would happen.

In a single moment, the course of his life took a drastic turn. As he relaxed at home one morning, the huge arrival of the SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) shattered the tranquility. With swift efficiency, they seized him, dragging him away into their custody. We heard the sad sentence for him: "He was fired to death"

His mother, guilty only of motherly love, faced her own punishment, condemned to months behind bars for allegedly condoning her son's actions.

The news of his fate spread through the community, there was a mix of joy and sorrow in the air. Chinagorom, met his end at the hands of justice. His reckless path of crime had led him to a tragic demise.
At least there was now a measure of security, many who committed crime in our neighborhood was in fear of SARS and we knew a measure of peace. Some said they got what he deserved, others were thankful that such a bad person is no longer in our midst.

Well, truly He got what he deserved. That's the sad consequence of choosing a bad course!